


Dreams of the Past and Future

by LouRandom



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt Tony Stark, Loki & Tony Stark Friendship, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Tony Stark Needs Sleep, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 07:37:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13829538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouRandom/pseuds/LouRandom
Summary: There's a strange look in Loki's eyes whenever he looks at Tony, who apparently needs to get better at convincing people that he's perfectly fine and functional.Takes place after Ragnarok, pretending Thanos' ship got caught in space traffic and the first post-credit scene never happens





	Dreams of the Past and Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [trashfaves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashfaves/gifts).



> Whopeeeee, my first FrostIron fic! 
> 
> (okay I've got dozens of uncompleted drafts and I'm too ashamed to post them because Tony's characterisation oh GOD how do I get it right?)
> 
> This saw the light of day thanks to the Tony Stark Defence League Valentine Exchange on Discord and is a gift to [trashfaves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashfaves/pseuds/trashfaves) who wanted hurt!Tony, hugs and FrostIron
> 
> Hope you like it!=)
> 
> *maintains a calm composure and goes off to cry over the perfection of these two and her inability to express it properly*

The first time Tony locked eyes with Loki, he _knew_ something was up.

Granted, it wasn’t actually _the_ first time; that would be their mini pissing contest in the Stark Tower way back when. That meeting though, Tony sensed zero emotion from the Trickster, other than the quite ostentatious ‘I’m going to take over your world and make you kneel’ vibe.

Now, though, it’s a different matter. Thor stood in front of Tony with a drunk-looking armor-clad woman, a confused Hulk and a suspiciously quiet God of Mischief and Lies, rambling on about some apocalyptic showdown with his sister. Tony was being steadily convinced that Thor really was the only relatively normal person in the… godly family of theirs. And amid all that Thor’s still suspiciously quiet brother was staring at Tony with a mix of confusion—or was it distrust? Pity?

Tony finally figured it was kind of like the look he himself would give a disabled child who’d just been beaten up. Although Tony had a hard time ignoring the scrutiny, he was a master of masks if anything else, so he simply proceeded to listen the rest of Thor’s story, before inquiring what exactly Thor’s plan was concerning setting up Earth’s version of Asgard and how Tony could help.

“No, no, wait,” Thor stopped him, “I mean—that’s important. But I still haven’t told you about Thanos.”

“What’s that?” Tony asked, frowning.

“It’s a who. And he’s dangerous.”

“Oh great,” Tony groaned. “ _Another_ one? Seriously?”

Once Thor finished his most disturbing story yet, it took a while to sort things out with the government, the huge spaceship full of Asgardians now headed for Norway, as well as with Doctor Strange, who seemed to have a huge problem with Loki being in the vicinity of this solar system.

Tony couldn’t help but be amused as the Sorcerer Supreme was promptly showered by a bunch of Loki’s spells (toads latching onto the sorcerer’s cloak, mini storms over his head, forced short-distance teleportations that turned Strange upside down, etc.) while the god muttered something about revenge and second-rate sorcerers.

Beneath the smile, though, hid a fear that someone was going to hear the uncontrollably fast beating of Tony’s heart.

That night, he drank himself to sleep, which didn't work for long. Eventually, the nightmare haunted by a dark purple figure was a bit too much and Tony opened his eyes to the void of his dark, empty room. He turned to see the faint glint of the mirror, where he momentarily spotted a flash of something green.

When he fell asleep again, he didn’t awaken until late morning.

*

“What are you doing?”

 _Holy fuck,_ Tony thought.

“Working.” Tony breathed deeply to get his heartbeat under control. “How’d you get into my lab? FRIDAY?”

“Mister Odinson’s bypassed all of my defenses, boss,” FRIDAY’s voice rang from the ceiling.

“Magic,” Loki 'explained'. “Working on what?”

There was a presence far too close to him now, spiking Tony’s annoyance.

“A weapon. You blind?”

“Simply curious.” A pale hand reaches out to skim through the tabs on one of the holographic screens hovering in the air. “And it doesn’t look like one of your weapons, if you don’t mind me pointing out the obvious.”

Tony put down his tools, squeezing his eyes shut tightly for a few moments and hoping this was all a hallucination.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, finally turning around to face a pair of bright green eyes regarding him with the same semi-confused semi-pitying look Tony had seen the previous day.

“As I said, I was simply curious,” Loki answered with a hint of a smile. He glanced at the engineer’s current project. “May I?”

Tony shrugged and gestured towards his workspace in a manner that said ‘go ahead.’ Honestly, his initial exasperation was giving in to curiosity as well.

 _What in_ hell _is he playing at?_ Tony thought as he watched the Trickster lift the shield and suspend it in the air with a spell. It rotated as Loki appraised it, at last nodding thoughtfully and replacing it.

“The Captain will be pleased. It’s quite sturdy and… _feels_ more powerful than the old version.”

Tony blinked at the god.

“He might like it. Might not.” The engineer walked towards the nearest unfinished cup of coffee and drained it. “I know you probably don’t follow the news. We aren’t exactly on the best of terms nowadays.”

“Surely he will help you if you are in need. Especially since Thanos—”

“Really, that is none of your business,” Tony cut in, trying to focus on something other than images of giant murderous aliens flashing in his mind. Like Loki’s lack of horned helmet. That was interesting. Unusual. “And well. I might have needed a bit of his assistance when he left me in a cold Siberian wasteland,” Tony finished, tone nonchalant.

“Why call him friend in the first place if he has such a shallow sense of loyalty?” Loki asked.

“Uh, why call Thor brother in the first place if you have an even more shallow sense of loyalty?” Tony parried.

Loki’s eyes darkened.

“It’s not the same, mortal.”

“Well, since this _mortal_ is a bit busy,” Tony said, “mind leaving him alone?”

Loki stared at him for a few moments, expression unreadable, before disappearing.

Tony sighed heavily. _Gods_.

When he returned to working on Roger’s shield, Tony spotted a steaming mug of coffee he could swear hadn’t been there before.

Uh huh.

That night, he didn't need a drink—he was exhausted enough to fall asleep by himself. His dreams featured battles, wormholes and forlorn green eyes.

*

Tony awoke the next morning with an epiphany about his newest security systems upgrade, rushing to get himself looking less like a walking corpse and then heading towards his lab.

What he saw there made his epiphany plummet to the deepest shades of hell and his mood drop to zero in a matter of seconds.

Tony sighed.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y?” No answer. “Hey!” Tony approached the God of Mischief, who was sitting idly on one of the tables, playing with a half-completed gauntlet. “What the actual _fuck_  did you _do?”_

“Good morning to you too, Anthony,” Loki greeted him with a sweet smile. “I merely made your ghost of an assistant take a short break.” He shrugged. “Nothing serious.”

Tony _wouldn’t_ get angry.

“Get out.”

“On the contrary, I’d like to stay.”

“Do you need me to call Thor?”

“And tell him what?”

“That you upended all of my vital fucking shields?” Well. The ‘not getting angry’ part wouldn’t work after all.

Loki raised his palms protectively.

“Only in the lab. Only for now. _And_ —I made coffee,” he said, producing a cup of the drink out of thin air.

“You made me coffee.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Look…” Tony snatched the life-giving drink and took a sip, half-waiting for a poison of some sort to kick in. “You just don’t _do_ things like this, okay? It’s enough that you tried destroying my planet once, now you’re moving from that to ruining my daily routine. Thanks.”

“You have no routine. And I am still very much curious.”

“What about?”

“This,” Loki said, motioning around the lab. “All of it.” He snapped his fingers and F.R.I.D.A.Y. came back on, rattling about all systems in the Avengers Compound being secure and stable. “In return—”

“You make me coffee?” Tony asked, trying to make sense of a mix of irritation and amusement warring within him.

“—I tell you how I tricked your security system so you can develop better defences against magic.”

Tony was slowly finishing his cup of coffee, contemplating the offer.

“Um. Problem is,” he said, “I don’t exactly trust you.”

“Trust isn’t a requirement for a mutually beneficial agreement,” Loki countered.

Also true, Tony thought, having to admit that he _did_ want to understand the absolutely insane concept of magic, how it could be countered and used against the caster.

“Deal,” he said, feeling like he had just agreed to jump off a helicopter without a parachute.

“Excellent.” Loki slid off the table, graceful as ever. “Where shall we start?”

*

They did develop a nice little arrangement. Loki picked up the basics of Earth physics and engineering alarmingly quickly while helping Tony cope with his reluctance to accept those of magical theory.

“It really is the same thing, different only in form,” Loki argued.

“How _exactly_ is the perfectly logical law of conservation of energy _the same_ as turning your brother _into a frog_?”

Loki would smile and proceed to explain the spell from another angle, condescending, as if speaking to a child. Tony figured he was somewhat of a kid to the thousand-year-old being, though, so no arguments there.

When he finally grasped the concepts of additional dimensions and different planes of reality often used to cast such illogical spells, he felt like he deserved a Nobel Prize in magic. Then Loki conjured up a massive tome full of ancient magical texts, Tony decided his award ceremony could be postponed until he learned about teleportation.

And matter manipulation.

And illusions.

And so much _more_.

Strange, but Loki’s fascination with science seemed to equal Tony’s amazement over sorcery, which greatly surprised Thor when he caught the two discussing classical mechanics and the laws of levitation. They didn’t even notice Loki’s brother until he shot a spark of lightning up Loki’s arm to get his attention. Some secret brotherly talk needed to be had.

Tony was annoyed at the interruption, but the Trickster’s look over his shoulder as he walked away held promises of more miraculous studies to be conducted, more fascinating conversations to be had.

Tony decided he could work with that.

*

Most of all, Tony was thankful for the absence of that pity-confusion-suspicion in Loki’s eyes now. Whenever the god looked at him now, his eyes were full of interest, playfulness and/or excitement.   

Until the day Tony had a panic attack in front of him. In front of everyone, really.

It was something of a surprise, when an innocent conversation between Thor and Valkyrie turned into a prognosis of how many worlds Thanos was willing to destroy to get what he wants.

Loki’s face adopted another one of his masks (some of which Tony had learned to recognize) as he said,

“In my experience, every world in his path.”

That’s when Tony realized he’d stopped breathing at some point.

Oh fuck.

It was just as uncontrollable as the first attack Tony had and just as unpleasant. The others thought he was hurt and he couldn’t even tell them otherwise because his throat was blocked. Vision was saying something and Tony was ready to scream in frustration at JARVIS not being there to help. He regained the ability to move before he could talk again, so he pushed all the constraining hands away and walked out of the room, intent on locking himself up on the roof for a long while.

He'd caught Loki’s gaze as he freed himself, and it was that same fucking look again, which made Tony feel weak, _pathetic_ , really, and downright terrified.

*

It could have been minutes or an hour before Tony was fully functional again. Just when he was about to head back down to snatch a drink, he was faced with the tall figure of a certain god he didn’t have the slightest desire to interact with just then. Not because he still disliked him—Tony had grown fond of the Trickster, despite initial reluctance. Rather, because embarrassment and shame were eating away at him and he hadn’t had those several shots of whiskey which would always dull the aches and stray emotions.

There was a hand on his _cheek_.

A hand on _Tony’s_ cheek.

There was a _hand_ on—

“Uh. Um. Hi?”

“What is wrong, Anthony?” Loki asked, face crumpled with worry.

 _Genuine_ worry.

The question and Loki's expression stopped Tony in his tracks. A simple inquiry which had no simple answer. Or rather, there was one, but Tony loathed to share it because—

“Everything.”

What happened to his voice? It was barely audible.

The next thing Tony knew, he was being hugged. Hugged lightly, almost tentatively, by arms which trembled slightly because of the cold or, perhaps, due to something else Tony couldn’t quite place. Surprisingly, Tony relaxed. Tony couldn’t tell whether it was because of Loki’s proximity or his magic, and he honestly didn’t care.

He expected Loki to try to talk him into going back and getting some sleep yet Loki pulled them to the ground and they sat together, overlooking the bright city underneath the moonless sky. A bottle of overly expensive wine appeared in Loki’s hand, and they passed it to each other, gradually emptying one bottle, then another. It was probably Tony who initiated the first kiss, Loki more than eager to return it. They exchanged different drinks, more kisses and rare words until Tony ended up asleep in Loki’s embrace.

That night—well, half the night—for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Tony was unbothered by dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments (including criticism) are greatly appreciated either here or on [Tumblr](fantasystoryteller.tumblr.com)


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